the idea that susan rice is taking the fall, taking these attacks, particularly from john mccain and lindsey graham, because all she was doing, she had gotten the same intelligence briefing that members of congress did, republicans and democrats, that david petraeus signed off on, the director of cia wrote the assessment, that's what she was doing. there are people in the white house, particularly the president, but a lot of support staff feel as if susan rice has gotten a raw deal on this. that she has been a political punching bag, if you will, over the last month and a half because of the presidential campaign, because of other things. so, this point when mccain and graham did their thing, that's why the president felt he needed to stand up for his u.n. ambassador. there's -- obviously he was giving off an indication he's willing to have a confirmation fight if they want to have one. but there's more to this chris. there's more to this. this goes back to mccain and obama, they never -- they never had a warm relationship after the 2008 election. mccain, i think, has been tougher on